Materia Viva is a work in progress dedicated to aromatic materials: resins, plants, woods, essences, balsams, flowers, seeds, roots. It is born from the encounter between perfume, writing, image, and living research.

Each material is listened to not only for its properties, but for its history, its provenance, its landscape, its symbolic gesture, its presence in the world. It is a cultural and sensory notebook: it follows materials all the way to their source, moving through geographies, traditions, routes, archives, images, and intuitions.

A resin, a wood, a flower, or an essence become the center of a research: a route opens, traces are gathered, the perfume is listened to, images are sought, a form is allowed to emerge.

Part of the research takes shape in texts and digital publication. Part of it is authored graphic work with fine art printing. The May issue is about Sumatran Benzoin. Here is an excerpt:

Benzoin carries a crossroads within it — it is like those trail markers where you must decide which way to go. There is Siam Benzoin, from the Styrax tonkinensis of Laos and Vietnam, and the Indonesian one, from Styrax benzoin of Sumatra. Today we choose Indonesia, where Sumatran Benzoin awaits us with its pungent aroma mingled with an intoxicating sweetness. Every aromatic material is, in the end, a path. But few declare it as explicitly as benzoin. Even the name says it: benzoin comes from the Arabic lubān jāwī, “incense of Java” — a name that is itself a route, a geographic origin carried inside a word. The resin crossed the Indian Ocean to the Arab ports, from there the Mediterranean, and arrived in Europe already with its provenance inscribed in its name. For centuries, before even being smelled, it was pronounced as a place.

If you are interested in reading Materia Viva, contact us via the WhatsApp button on the website to request a free copy and for any further details.